Kamakawi Word of the Day

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mu

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable mu in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (n.) spiral (shape)

I mu ie lelea…
“There’s a spiral in the water…”

Notes: And we come to this one. So mu doesn’t mean anything, really. It’s just kind of a thing. In the oldest form of the writing system, it was a spiral, and so if you use it with a determiner, it means “spiral”, but in the same way that “O” means “circle” or “ring” in English (e.g. “Form an O around the pole.”). So it doesn’t really have a meaning, per se. It’s really just a shape. Kind of a neat one, though.

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mo

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable mo in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (n.) swallow (the bird)

Ku ale mo ko!
“The swallows have returned!”

Notes: The big deal with San Juan Capistrano, apparently, is that they have a great migration of swallows every year. I’ve never seen them myself, but I have seen the souvenirs they spawn.

For some reason, the shape of this iku caught my fancy, and it became the base of quite a number of other iku. Look out for it in the future!

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mi

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable mi in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (n.) butterfly
• (v.) to float (in the air)
• (adj.) floating
• (v.) to be carefree
• (adj.) carefree
• (v.) to be muddy
• (adj.) muddy
• (n.) mud (uncommon)

A eli ei iu mi.
“I love butterflies.”

Notes: So this word got turned into a crazy amount of words later on via derivation. You’ll likely see some of them in the days to follow, even though I’m still not sure how I feel about them.

The iku derives from a fairly standard picture of a butterfly, even though he kind of looks like a dude now. But the meaning “butterfly” is only attached to the determined glyph. The undetermined version of this iku means “muddy”, and is derived directly from me via an old (now no longer productive) derivation process.

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me

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable me in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (let.) name of the Zhyler alphabet letter m
• (n.) wet sand
• (adj.) dirty (like wet sand)

Oku me i iele.
“Wet sand is not clay.”

Notes: The iku for this syllable derives from the iku for the syllable ta, which means “sand”. In the original, the line above the ta part was a kind of wavy line (and the same for the lines that comprise the various iku for kinds of water). By now, the line has straightened out. But the idea is that the sand was there, and the water was over it, resulting in wet sand.

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ma

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable ma in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (n.) mom (form of direct address)

Ipe ie ma oi’i.
“That’s my mom.”

Notes: The word for “mother” is mala; this is the word that a Kamakawi child would actually use to talk to his/her mother. The iku derives from a sideview of a woman with a line over it (the line indicating something like “original” or “important”). In fact, just for fun, here is the original glyph:

As you can see, over the years a second line was added. I was thinking that the original top line would kind of sandwich down and mark the top, but then as there would no longer be a top line, a new one was added.

Oh, and, of course, the determined version is used for the noun.

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ku

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable ku in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (n.) aloe plant

A li ia ie ku.
“Get the aloe.”

Notes: That’s something I heard a lot as a kid. Ahh…sunburns and cuts. That should be the title of the book describing my childhood.

This iku’s supposed to look like an aloe plant (kind of), so I hope it does. The determined variant is reserved for the noun; the undetermined for everything else. The aloe plant, of course, has a number of healing properties, and I don’t think a culture could exist that had the aloe plant and didn’t use it. It’s good stuff.

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ko

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable ko in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (adv./pron.) here, this place, at this place
• (adv./pron.) now, this time, at this time
• (suf.) attached to pronouns to mark proximity (usually used in opposition to something else or for emphasis)

Ale ia ko.
“Come here.”

Notes: This word is pe’s partner in crime. It denotes nearness in many ways: temporally, spatially, even socially. As I mentioned with pe, the determined version is actually not that common. Mostly it’s used when the word itself occurs next to words that are spelled out in the kavaka i oala so that the reader can be sure that the adverb/pronoun isn’t a part of that word.

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ki

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable ki in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (n.) sunrise
• (n.) day (measured from sunrise to sunrise)
• (v.) for the sun to rise

A hemata ei tie ki; e hala’i tie imawawa.
“I awaken for the sunrise; I live for the sunset.”

Notes: This iku is supposed to be the sun rising over the mountains. The sun, of course, is not round, due to the squarification (rectangularization? angularization? straightenation?) of circles that happened as the writing system developed (see this entry for more on that). Its determined form is used for the nominal meanings, and it occurs in a large number of words—some of which you can see in my sidebar (the one on the left) that tells you what day of the week it is.

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ke

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable ke in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (let.) name of the Zhyler alphabet letter k
• (n.) tooth

Ka fili ei i ke kau!
“I lost a tooth!”

Notes: This is a weird iku. Essentially, the “tooth” is the top part (the little three-sided…tooth-looking thing). That wasn’t big enough to be a glyph, though, so a line was drawn underneath (a similar strategy is used with other glyphs). That little tooth, though, winds up showing up in a lot of other iku (kepi, for example) to (quite usefully) denote the syllable ke. Due its size and funky shape, though, the added toothlet looks like a bizarre little tacked on element. I’d be lying if I said I hate it.

The determined version, of course, is used for the word “tooth”; the undetermined version for all other uses.

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ka

• (syl.) glyph for the syllable ka in the Kamakawi syllabary
• (num.) two
• (det.) both
• (adj.) second
• (v.) to double
• (suf.) creates a dual

Au tei iaka eyana!
“You two dance well!”

Notes: The iku for ka is such because you have two dots that connect. So even though it looks like our “one”, or even a single tally, it’s not one: it’s two.

As mentioned previously, the determined version of ka is used for “to double”, but with this one, the real issue is pronouns.

So Kamakawi kind of has dual and trial pronouns, but not really. There are special forms for dual and trial first person inclusive pronouns, but other than that, dual and trial “pronouns” are formed by suffixing a number to the singular pronoun form. It’s roughly the equivalent of saying something “you two” in English.

And this suffixing isn’t restricted to two and three. You can suffix any number (within reason) and produce a new pronoun. The only difference is that the presence of the inclusive first person dual and trial pronouns argue (in a way) for a dual and trial category along with singular and plural. Me, I don’t worry about it so much. I figure it does what it does, and that’s enough.